The Cycle of Reincarnation in the Four-Courtyard House: A Journey Through the Heavens

With this in mind, Evelyn no longer hesitated and immediately bent down to quickly rummage through her archaeological toolbox.

After searching for a while, I finally found the black octagonal box in the compartment at the bottom of the toolbox.

She lightly pressed the hidden clasp on the edge of the black box with her fingertips, and with a soft "click", the top of the black box, which was originally closed, instantly opened like a flower petal. Eight neat triangular petals slowly opened, and the patterns and angles were exactly the same as the grooves on the top of the stone coffin.

Evelyn held her breath, her eyes fixed on the groove at the top of the coffin, and carefully and slowly attached the eight-petaled structure of the black box to it.

The two fit together perfectly the moment they touched, and Evelyn was now certain that the black box was the key to the sarcophagus.

Evelyn composed herself and, drawing on her years of archaeological experience, tentatively began to slowly twist the knob clockwise.

As the black box turned, the mechanism that had been dormant inside the stone coffin for three thousand years was finally awakened. A series of fine, continuous "click-clack" sounds emanated from inside the coffin, exceptionally clear in the silent stone chamber.

The gears meshed and unlocked layer by layer, and with a final soft click, a narrow crack appeared on the edge of the heavy stone coffin lid, from which a sinister and decaying aura slowly seeped out.

This ancient coffin, sealed for three thousand years, is now finally being unsealed.

Evelyn couldn't help but feel a little nervous and uneasy. She turned her head slightly and subconsciously looked at Li Xiao beside her, her eyes filled with a hint of probing and unease.

Li Xiao remained expressionless and nodded slightly in response to her gaze.

With Li Xiao's tacit approval and encouragement, Evelyn took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in her heart, reached out and placed her hand on the cold stone coffin lid, and pushed it outward with a little force.

Surprisingly, the coffin lid, sealed by dust and locked by mechanisms after three thousand years, was not as heavy and cumbersome as expected. Once the internal mechanisms were fully unlocked, there was very little resistance.

With a powerful push of her arms, she easily and slowly opened the heavy stone coffin lid. When Evelyn saw what was inside, she couldn't help but widen her eyes in astonishment.

Inside this giant stone coffin, sealed for three thousand years, there was no decayed and dried-up mummy as expected. Instead, there was a smaller, exquisite stone coffin inside.

The inner stone coffin was also polished to be neat and heavy. In the center of the coffin lid, there was an identical eight-lobed triangular groove. The pattern and shape were no different from the mechanism of the outer coffin, which was obviously a matching sealing structure.

The nested coffins within coffins reveal the taboos and meticulousness of ancient Egypt, making the eerie atmosphere of the stone chamber even more intense.

Without hesitation, Evelyn skillfully removed the octagonal black box embedded in the outer sarcophagus and, using the same unlocking method, aligned the unfolded eight-petal structure with the groove of the small sarcophagus and attached it.

With a flick of his fingertips, he slowly turned the black box clockwise. The familiar "click-clack" sound of the mechanism engaging echoed once again in the stone chamber, and the inner seal mechanism, which had been dormant for thousands of years, was slowly unlocked.

Unlike the slow opening of the outer stone coffin, the inner stone coffin's lid sprang up violently and rapidly the moment the mechanism was unlocked!

The unexpected happened suddenly; Evelyn was leaning forward and had no time to dodge.

At the critical moment, Li Xiao, who was beside her, moved with lightning speed, grabbed Evelyn's waist, and pulled her back sharply.

Barely avoiding the deadly attack, the popped-out coffin lid crashed heavily to the ground, completely revealing the scene inside.

The moment the inner coffin lid was opened, a wisp of eerie black mist quietly rose from inside the coffin, mixing with the decaying air.

This black aura was completely invisible to the naked eye of ordinary people, but Li Xiao could clearly see this wisp of ghostly energy, which was wrapped in a strong aura of resentment and poison, drifting out.

A highly decomposed mummy lay quietly in a small stone coffin. Its flesh had long since rotted and shriveled, and its face was completely blurred and distorted, making it impossible to recognize any trace of its appearance in life.

The dry, cracked, and blackened skin clung tightly to the bones, and a thick sense of death and gloom surrounded her, which made Evelyn tremble with fear.

She looked at the coffin lid that had fallen to the ground, and immediately squatted down to carefully examine the patterns on it with a flashlight.

"Darling, come quick! There are many messy scratches inside the coffin lid. These don't look like ancient Egyptian writing; they look more like marks made by human hands!"

Li Xiao nodded and said, "The mummified corpse in this coffin should be Imhotep, the high priest of Pharaoh Set I, from three thousand years ago!"

"Imhotep? I think I've seen that name in that old book." Evelyn looked thoughtful.

She suddenly clapped her hands and said excitedly, "I remember now, this Imhotep is said to have had an affair with Set I's favorite concubine, and the Pharaoh found out about it once."

"Just as Pharaoh was preparing to punish the two, Imhotep conspired with his favorite concubine Anshuna to murder Seti I. After the plot was exposed, the concubine committed suicide, while Imhotep was subjected to the most cruel torture of being eaten by insects by the Pharaoh's guards."

Evelyn ran her fingers over the scratches carved into the inside of the coffin lid with her fingernails: "Just look at all these messy scratches inside this sarcophagus; you can deduce that Imhotep must have suffered inhuman torture before his death!"

"Snap!"

Li Xiao was incredibly impressed by this woman's deductive abilities. He himself had seen the movie and was familiar with the plot, but Evelyn had no idea!

Based solely on a few scratches on the coffin lid and some of her own clues, she almost completely reconstructed the palace secret that occurred three thousand years ago, which is something that ordinary people cannot do.

Li Xiao has traveled through many worlds and has been involved with more than a dozen women, but so far, the smartest one is undoubtedly Evelyn in front of him.

Just then, a burst of gunfire suddenly came from the depths of the underground tunnel.

The crackling of gunfire rose and fell, piercing through layers of stone walls and clearly penetrating into the stone chamber.

Listening to the commotion, the two sides were advancing, getting closer and closer to their location. The muffled gunshots and roars mingled together, completely shattering the ancient tomb's thousand-year-old silence.

Evelyn's heart tightened, and she immediately asked Li Xiao, "Darling, how could there be gunshots coming from this ancient tomb buried deep underground?"

Li Xiao gently patted Evelyn's back to soothe her, saying, "Do you remember those men in black who attacked us in the middle of the night on the ship?"

Evelyn's eyes narrowed, and she instantly recalled the events, immediately replying, "You mean the descendants of the Pharaoh's guard?"

"That's right!"

Li Xiao nodded slightly and said with certainty, "They have already stormed into Hamunaptra and are currently engaged in fierce combat with the group of American explorers."

He stood up, brushed the dust off his sleeves and shoulders, and continued, "This is the pharaoh's tomb that they have guarded for generations. They would never tolerate those American explorers trespassing and stealing the treasures and relics from the tomb."

Gunshots and explosions grew clearer and closer, and the atmosphere in the sealed stone chamber suddenly became tense.

Evelyn was understandably flustered at this moment, and asked with a hint of urgency, "What should we do? Should we leave here first?"

Li Xiao shook his head slightly, his gaze calm and resolute, showing no intention of leaving: "There's no need to rush. There are still things I must obtain in this tomb."

Evelyn, her eyes brimming with curiosity, instinctively asked, "What are you looking for?"

Li Xiao raised his eyes to look into the depths of the stone chamber and said, word by word, "The Book of the Dead and the Book of the Sun."